ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Greg Gibbons, Automated Library II Greg Gibbons was the creator of Automated Library II, software for running school libraries, which was available for the Atari 8-bit and Apple II computers. There's an article about the software in the April 1985 issue of American Libraries: "The Automated Library II is a bar-code circulation system that runs on the Atari line of microcomputers. The program, designed for school libraries circulating 30 to 500 items per day, checks books in and out, compiles overdue lists, and prints class records and daily circulation summaries by Dewey Decimal numbers. Software developer Gregory Gibbons studied the day-to-day activities of a junior high school librarian and then designed a system to automate as much of the repetitious work as possible. The program was extensively tested in a Los Angeles school for over a year before its release. All inputs are prompted with simple English. The system is so easy to use that the test library used students to perform most of the operations. The program produces bar codes for the books in the library and student-ID bar codes, which are entered into the computer and attached to books and student IDs. … If the student is authorized to check out books the computer will make a short beep and print 'OK to check out books' on the screen. If the student is on the overdue list, the computer makes a different noise to alert the staff. At the end of the day, the librarian instructs the computer to perform a daily update, which incorporates all transactions into the database. The update takes about 15 minutes per 1,000 students, and automatically generates a new overdue list that can be printed at any time. The program works best with 200 to 3,000 students, although a larger number of students will simply cause the program to take a little longer to update each day. The Automated Library II runs on the Atari 800, 800XL, and 1200XL computers…The system costs $700, including the light wand." This interview took place on May 24, 2018. Atari-Based School Library Circ System at Internet Archive Atari-Based School Library Circ System at jstor Automated Library II Software and Documentation

Tom Snyder, educational software Tom Snyder was the founder of Computer Learning Connection, which was later renamed to Tom Snyder Productions, a company that created many educational software titles for the school and home computer markets. The company's home software included Agent USA and Bannercatch (published by Scholastic,) Halley Project (published by Mindscape,) Run For the Money (published by Scarborough Systems,) and In Search of the Most Amazing Thing (published by Spinnaker.) Snooper Troops I and II, both published by Spinnaker, were the first educational software to make the industry's bestseller list. The company made many more software products that it sold directly to schools, including Decisions Decisions and The Other Side. This interview took place on July 2, 2018. "I think my favorite memories of all the programs I designed was sitting in bars with a legal pad writing the design out, you know, long before you write code. It was all on paper ... And the longer you can wait before you start programming, the better off you are." Celebrating the Third Place: Inspiring Stories About the "Great Good Places" at the Heart of Our Communities Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community Dr. Katz Professional Therapist ANTIC magazine: Profile of a Snooper Trooper AtariMania's list of Tom's games ANTIC Interview 278 - Bill Bowman, CEO of Spinnaker Software Woody Allen vodka Ad clip Polygon article about Tom

Bob Ertl, REWRITE Word Processor In 1987, Bob Ertl's master's thesis was titled "Narrowing the Gap Between the Word Processing Needs of Teachers and the Capabilities of Word Processors for Atari 8-bit Computers." As part of that project, he created a word processor for the Atari computers, aimed at the needs of math teachers. The word processor is called REWRITE and was never widely available. It was only used by a handful of teachers. Bob has released two versions of the word processor in ATR format, along with the Mac/65 source code and the manual. I scanned his thesis. All of this is available at Internet Archive. This interview took place on July 10, 2018. "My wife would help me with this. The way she would help me is she was patient enough to let me explain what my assembly language code was supposed to do. So I had to say it clearly enough for her to be able to follow it, and in doing so I was often able to find the errors that I was looking for." Master's thesis and REWRITE object/source code AtariAge discussion about REWRITE

Ed Meyer, physical chemistry experiments with Atari computers In the 1990s, Ed Meyer was a professor at DePaul University in Chicago, where he taught physical chemistry. In August 1990, The Journal of Chemical Education published his article, "An Inexpensive Computer Station for Undergraduate Laboratories Using the Atari 800XL" in which Ed showed how to interface the Atari controller ports with a 12-bit analog-to-digital converter chip to do chemistry experiments. (The article includes schematics and code in assembly language and BASIC.) From the article: "The kind of "interfacing" that has been emphasized in chemical education thus far in this country has been largely limited to using the "game paddle inputs" of a home com- puter, which allows the connection of any device that looks like a variable resistor to the computer. This approach has served admirably as an introduction to the power and versa- tility of inexpensive home computers as data collectors and handlers but suffers from significant disadvantages. The most obvious is the limitation to 8 bits of information; one would like to be able to obtain better precision than this provides (at half scale we can expect roughly 1% reproduc- ibility). Another is the requirement that the resistance of the transducer used be consistent with that of the game paddle it replaces. It is possible, without spending inordinate sums of money, to convert one of these home computers into a research- grade instrument with a resolution of 1 bit in 4096, if one knows a little about digital electronics. This article describes an interface for the Atari 800XL computer based on a 12-bit analogue-to-digital converter (ADC). We have incorporated six of them into "computer stations" in our upper track freshman laboratory. In general, the variables in question (e.g., temperature vs. time for coffee cup calorimeter experi- ments, pH vs. volume titrant) are plotted in real time on the monitor screen, and after collection of the data, a hard copy of the plot is produced on a printer, along with a table of the data. We use similar stations in our physical chemistry lab- oratory, where more sophisticated curve-fitting routines are included." This interview took place on July 9, 2018. "Once the thing is able to read a DC voltage, you have all kinds of opportunities. ... I mean the most obvious one is to use a pH meter to do acid-base titrations." Article: An Inexpensive Computer Station for Undergraduate Laboratories Using the Atari 800XL Heterogeneous catalysis

John Harris, APX Can't Quit John Harris published one program for the Atari computer: Can't Quit, a game that was published by Atari Program Exchange. Can't Quit first appeared in the summer 1983 APX catalog. It was the only program published by this John Harris — although he has the same name as the John Harris who created Jawbreaker (whom I previously interviewed.) This interview took place on July 5, 2018. Can't Quit at AtariMania Can't Stop at BoardGameGeek ANTIC interview with the other John Harris

David Young, Omnimon David Young was the creator of Omnimon, the popular hardware monitor/debugger for the Atari 8-bit computers. His other products included DiskScan, a floppy disk utility; Supermon, the predecessor to Omnimon; Omnicom, a terminal program; and Omniview, an 80 column E: handler. This interview took place on June 11, 2018. In it, we discuss Wes Newell, whom I previously interviewed. "The IBM PC came out. I looked at it really hard. ... And I thought, 'You know, I really should develop products for this guy.' But it was just such a ugly beast." ANTIC Interview 212 - Wes Newell, Newell Industries DiskScan and Atari Disk Data Structures Tutorial Antic magazine review of Omnimon Omnivore by Rob McMullen

Rockie "RJ" Morgan, APX Piano Tuner Rockie "RJ" Morgan published one program through Atari Program Exchange: Piano Tuner, which first appeared in the summer 1983 APX catalog. This interview took place on June 5, 2018. Piano Tuner in the summer 1983 APX catalog Piano Tuner at AtariMania Unix: An Open Systems Dictionary

Michael McInerney, physics experiments with Atari computers In the 1980s, Michael McInerney was a professor in the physics department at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, when he wrote several journal articles about how to control experiments and gather data using Atari computers. The articles included Interfacing the Atari Microcomputer in the Science Laboratory, which appeared in the spring 1983 issue of Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching; Game Port Physics - Introductory Experiments in Linear Dynamics, which appeared in the spring 1984 issue; and Computer-Aided Experiments with the Damped Harmonic Oscillator, which appeared in the October 1985 issue of American Journal of Physics. This interview took place on May 21, 2018. "The reviewers refused to believe I could do it which such cheap equipment. ... They said it wasn't possible to do it." Interfacing the Atari Microcomputer in the Science Laboratory Game Port Physics - Introductory Experiments in Linear Dynamics Computer-Aided Experiments with the Damped Harmonic Oscillator McInerney's bio

Norm Draper, Draper Pascal Norm Draper was the creator of Draper Pascal, a version of the Pascal programming language for the Atari 8-bit computers. Draper Pascal started as a commercial program sold directly though advertisements in computer magazines, then later became shareware. This interview took place on July 3, 2018. "I offered club members to pay them for every bug they would find in my software. I'd pay them $3. ... There were a few. I didn't have to pay out that much money at all, really." Draper Pascal "New Product" in Antic magazine, Feb. 1990 Draper Pascal 2.1 Manual AtariWiki on Draper Pascal AtariMania's list of Norm's software

Brooke Alderson, Atari TV Commercials Brooke Alderson was an actor in the 1980s and 1990s: she appeared in several television shows including Murder, She Wrote and Family Ties; and is perhaps best known for her role as Aunt Corene in the 1980 film Urban Cowboy. She also appeared in many TV commercials. She did a 30-second spot for Atari home computers, and was featured on Atari's in-store point-of-purchase laserdisc. In the commercial, Brooke played the part of a mom who is teased by her teenage daughter for not knowing the states and capitals. By the end of the commercial, having learned from her Atari 400 computer, she can quickly and correctly name the capitals. On the Electronic Retail Information Center (E.R.I.C.) laserdisc, Brooke also played the part of a mom who extolls the virtues of Atari's educational software, with an emphasis on Scram, the nuclear power plant simulation; and My First Alphabet, software for teaching letters and numbers to small children. This interview took place on July 2, 2018. States and Capitals commercial Atari E.R.I.C. point-of-purchase laserdisc Brooke's IMDB page